It seems to still be “all systems go” in Bogo, a city located in northern Cebu, as noted by Sambag Barangay Chairman, Virgilio Terada. Supply of essential goods are stable while hardware stores selling building materials are still open, except for those that chose to temporarily close shop. The problem, however, is that people still can’t buy anything, even if they need to repair or rebuild their homes.
When the city was placed under enhanced community quarantine in March, many of Terada’s constituents, most of which are construction workers, had returned home because work in Cebu City temporarily stopped. Terada did not only have to deal with their health situation, but also those in need of financial aid because their sources of livelihood had stopped.
“Tricycle drivers and construction laborers are the most affected, because nobody wants to go out and even major construction works stopped around here. There are still those doing minor home repairs, but these homeowners only hire two people at most because of physical distancing,” Terada revealed.
His only hope is for the pandemic to be finally over so they can all return to normal. “We really live in difficult times, and I can’t give all of them jobs or money. And without money, they can’t complete their homes.”
Terada’s community represents the staggering number of people who struggle to incrementally build a decent home, due to a lack of affordable construction materials and access to appropriate services, and whose home building plans are further dampened due to the pandemic.
Referred to as the owner-driven construction segment, they constitute 55% of what is called the “unserved” segment, whose housing needs reached 5.9 million units, as revealed by a 2020 housing gap study by Habitat for Humanity’s Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter, and Center for Communications and Research (CRC). The study further revealed that, by 2022, the anticipated housing crisis will hit the Philippines hard with a 15-million housing gap if nothing is done to immediately address it.
The study was one of the highlights of the recently launched ‘BAHAYnihan: Rising Together through Housing’ online forum organized by Habitat for Humanity Philippines, the Terwilliger Center, and CRC. The online forum was part of Habitat’s celebration of Urban October and was a first of a series of quarterly online forums that aim to build awareness of the housing needs in the country and the unserved population, and to create partnerships, particularly with the business sector, in solving the gap.
“The economy is at a stand-still, which makes the flow of resources slower and limits the opportunities for income generation. Low-income households are putting house repairs and upgrades on hold, and this continues to happen because the Philippines is one of the most unequal economies and societies in Southeast Asia. This inequality causes exclusion in various aspects of the housing market system: financial, material, services, information, and policy exclusion,” said Jessan Catre, Terwilliger Center’s Philippine Shelter Venture Lab Country Lead.
Strengthening housing markets
Typically, low-income households build homes that they improve as soon as their resources allow. The process of housing improvement itself is often a ladder out of poverty for families. These changes benefit the larger community, reducing inequality and building resilience against economic and natural disasters.
Additionally, housing is shown to be a larger-than-expected contributor to emerging economies’ GDP, with a contribution of 14.9% of the GDP in the Philippines alone, on par with sectors such as manufacturing that often draw more attention in economic recovery plans. In the Philippines, the undercount of the entire housing sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP is already at Php 1.39 trillion (US$ 29 billion).
Given the importance of housing in social and sustainable development indicators, there is great potential for serving low-income families’ shelter needs. In the Philippines, these incremental builders represent a market value of Php 626.5 billion (US$13 billion).
With the launch of the Terwilliger Center in 2016, and the Philippines’ Shelter Venture Lab in 2019, Habitat for Humanity aims to play a catalytic role by stimulating changes in market systems, including supporting companies to find market opportunities that can meet the shelter needs of low-income families. The Center works with local firms and other market actors to expand innovative and client-responsive services, products and financing. Such an approach enables low-income households, particularly incremental builders, to improve their shelter more effectively and efficiently.
In partnering with Philmetal Products, Inc., the Terwilliger Center supported in expanding the roofing materials company’s distribution channels, in order to enable 2,500 low-income households in Cebu to access more affordable, improved quality materials.
“We are also working closely with media companies to produce content about better housing targeted at low-income audiences. Our interventions include audience research so we can better understand how low-income households behave, particularly what kind of content they consume and how they access it,” Catre said. Other partnerships have provided provide digital training and educational opportunities to aspiring skilled construction workers and tradesmen.
Business solutions to housing
To ensure business-driven solutions are making a real difference, the Terwilliger Center is engaging with more market actors across the supply chain, as well as often-overlooked labor groups such as incremental builders and masons.
“By working through the core business model of companies, we can increase their ability to reach new market segments and change the way the housing and construction sector works for low-income Filipinos. An inclusive approach makes good business sense. By making their products and services accessible to more Filipinos, businesses are also expanding their own resources and markets,” Catre added.
In the Philippines, the Terwilliger Center and Habitat for Humanity Philippines continue to bring attention to the unserved segment’s housing needs through the BAHAYnihan Forum. In January, the second iteration of the forum will gather national corporate leaders to find and promote business solutions that provide quality products and services to the unserved segment.
Enterprises, corporations, startups, professional associations, academics and other interested parties can apply to join the Terwilliger Center’s programs by sending an expression of interest alongside an organizational or professional profile. Selected organizations will receive financial and technical support, and will benefit from Habitat’s knowledge of low-income housing, and latest findings from ongoing research on the unserved but emerging segment and global best practices. Contact us at TCIS-PH@habitat.org to find our more and submit your expression of interest.
